For anyone who has never experienced water restrictions, it can be hard to imagine what it's like.

I lived in a mainland Australian state during a period of severe water restrictions - we were up to Level 6. It was due to a combination of infrastructure not keeping up with population growth and non-existant rainfall in our catchment areas, even though we got the odd rainstorm in the city. Mains pressure had been reduced, washing cars and any sort of external water use was banned except bucket watering. 4 minute showers. We'd put buckets in the shower to collect water for the garden, no flushing except for #2's, wash up in bowls to save the water for the garden. It was tough. Even now the sight of a tap running for no purpose* gives me the horrors.

My house at the time had a double sink - we used smaller bowls to save water, and rinsed quickly in the second bowl.

During this time my ex and I built an investment property - by law we were required to plumb for town water, water tanks and recycled water, and install tanks on the property. The tank and recyc (when it came on line, very controversial at the time) were to be used for laundry, toilets etc.

At the time I also installed a water tank at home. It made a difference - even drought-tolerant plants need a drink occasionally.

*During this time, I watched a US produced 'true life' haunting show - where they dramatise events of a documented haunting, usually they're pretty chilling. In this one show, a woman went into the bathroom to brush her teeth, turned the tap on full blast before she'd even loaded her toothbrush, and wandered around the bathroom aimlessly while the water ran. I was screaming at the TV - 'Turn off the darned water!' It scared me more than the ghostly activity did...

Looking around it seems that it gets contentious all over the 'net and from way back as far as 2004 people have argued which method is better and more hygienic. I'll skip chiming in on either and just share this

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/41408-dishes-no-rinsing-in-water-after-washing/page-3 specifically this posted by Vinter "The important fact that mixer taps are very recent in the UK seems to have been overlooked, but it explains much of the non-rinsing. Most of the installed plumbing in the UK has a hot tap and a cold tap, and the only way to mix an intermediate temperature is in a closed sink or basin. The hot water is these days kept very hot to avoid Legionnaires Disease, and in winter the cold is very cold; neither is tolerable for running-water rinsing."

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I guess I wasn't clear enough that it's just the perception of it, kind of like to some people not rinsing dishes seems really odd (it seems to me too, all our general dish washing soaps have warning labels and though it probably applies more to it undiluted, I still don't want digest it).

I don't think that I could bring myself to rinse under running water, it seems so wasteful.

You only turn on the faucet in really short bursts--i.e. only when you have a dish to rinse--and I bet the amount of water used is lower than if you filled a sink of standing water. It doesn't just run the whole time.

That's why I said it seems wasteful, not that it necessarily is I think that we were taught at school that leaving water running is evil and obviously it applies to everything. I usually wash quite a lot of dishes at a time (because I hate doing them and am lazy) and I think that rinsing them would probably take as much water as my plastic tub and it seems easier to me.

How do you shower? or flush a toilet?I don't think anyone is advocating just leaving the water running randomly, but rather during active washing/rinsing time, no different then rinsing your hands, or your toothbrush or your hair.

Right.

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I've never knitted anything I could recognize when it was finished. Actually, I've never finished anything, much to my family's relief.

I don't think that I could bring myself to rinse under running water, it seems so wasteful.

You only turn on the faucet in really short bursts--i.e. only when you have a dish to rinse--and I bet the amount of water used is lower than if you filled a sink of standing water. It doesn't just run the whole time.

That's why I said it seems wasteful, not that it necessarily is I think that we were taught at school that leaving water running is evil and obviously it applies to everything. I usually wash quite a lot of dishes at a time (because I hate doing them and am lazy) and I think that rinsing them would probably take as much water as my plastic tub and it seems easier to me.

How do you shower? or flush a toilet?I don't think anyone is advocating just leaving the water running randomly, but rather during active washing/rinsing time, no different then rinsing your hands, or your toothbrush or your hair.

Right.

I don't leave the shower running for the whole time so it's more like the method where you only turn on the water for a few seconds to rinse. And frankly flushing toilets are really wasteful.

What about food particles in addition to soap suds? If you don't rinse a plate and just put it on the drying rack after pulling it out of the pool of standing water it's been washed in, don't you sometimes miss the odd bit of tiny watery wet carrot or string of tomato or coriander leaf that gets loosely stuck to a plate as you pull it out the sink?

Never had a problem with it. There's quite a bit of water in the sink, you scrape off the worst of any solid stuff, you wash the really dirty stuff last and replace the water if it gets too dirty.

What about food particles in addition to soap suds? If you don't rinse a plate and just put it on the drying rack after pulling it out of the pool of standing water it's been washed in, don't you sometimes miss the odd bit of tiny watery wet carrot or string of tomato or coriander leaf that gets loosely stuck to a plate as you pull it out the sink?

Never had a problem with it. There's quite a bit of water in the sink, you scrape off the worst of any solid stuff, you wash the really dirty stuff last and replace the water if it gets too dirty.

Exactly. Besides, I always rinse the dishes immediately after use to get the worst stuff off before it dried and got all crusty, so the water didn't actually have all that much food residue in it.

washing and rinsing dishes? making sure the uneaten food-bits get cleared away? loooxooory! when we were young we didn't have plates--father passed around a piece of bone and we took turns licking it. later when we had money we had a sink and hot water. the neighbours would bring all their dirty dishes to soak in it--we called it soup, i can still taste it."

For anyone who has never experienced water restrictions, it can be hard to imagine what it's like.

I lived in a mainland Australian state during a period of severe water restrictions - we were up to Level 6. It was due to a combination of infrastructure not keeping up with population growth and non-existant rainfall in our catchment areas, even though we got the odd rainstorm in the city. Mains pressure had been reduced, washing cars and any sort of external water use was banned except bucket watering. 4 minute showers. We'd put buckets in the shower to collect water for the garden, no flushing except for #2's, wash up in bowls to save the water for the garden. It was tough. Even now the sight of a tap running for no purpose* gives me the horrors.

In this one show, a woman went into the bathroom to brush her teeth, turned the tap on full blast before she'd even loaded her toothbrush, and wandered around the bathroom aimlessly while the water ran. I was screaming at the TV - 'Turn off the darned water!' It scared me more than the ghostly activity did...

We must live in the same city. Most of those things are now ingrained into me even though (some) restrictions have been lifted, with the exception of the showers. 4 minutes just ain't gonna cut it!

And yes, seeing people running water in the manner of that TV show gives me the willies now! I don't even turn the water on to brush my teeth until the toothpaste is on the brush, and it gets turned off again as soon as the brush is wet, and in between needing to be rinsed.

What about food particles in addition to soap suds? If you don't rinse a plate and just put it on the drying rack after pulling it out of the pool of standing water it's been washed in, don't you sometimes miss the odd bit of tiny watery wet carrot or string of tomato or coriander leaf that gets loosely stuck to a plate as you pull it out the sink?

Not if the dishes are washed properly. If (general) you does notice something still stuck it's as simple as putting it back into the sink of water and washing it off.

For smaller quantities, I will wash, put the dishes in the dish drainer (which sits on the draining board) and then use a mug or glass to pour water over them to rinse, as this uses less water than simply running a tap.

This is how I do I do too, although most people I know just leave them to air dry (or dry as they go) without pouring any water over them.

As for actually washing the dishes that don't get put in the dishwasher - they are rinsed or scrapped if required, then all sit on the side of the bench, and are placed one at a time into the sink full of hot soapy water. They are washed with the cloth and then placed in the drying rack.

I grew up in NZ - I don't know if it's regional or not, but most homes when I grew up had a single sink. And you washed the dishes by washing the crockery and cutlery first, then the glasses (which my mum always filled with hot water before we dried them so they wouldn't streak). then you washed the more heavily dirty items. If you needed to, you refilled the sink, but we never rinsed the dishes at all.

And none of us got sick from it.

I grew up in NZ too, with a single sink, washing cups/glasses, then crockery and then more heavily diritied items. No rinsing.

I live in Australia now, and we have 2 sinks, but I've never used the second for rinsing. The few times I've tried it elsewhere, (A) it seemed like a waste of water, and (B) after the first few dishes, the second sink was full of suds, which rather negated the rinsing anyway.

I'm just curious. Some New Zealanders and Europeans have commented about that they don't rinse. This surprised me and having worked in different commercial kitchens over the last 25+ years, I've always seen the 3-sink system (wash, rinse, sanitize) as I mentioned in an earlier post.

Is the 'no rinse' method also the way it's done in non-US commercial kitchens? Apparently many of us Americans have a love affair with rinsing .

I've never been a fan of a sink full of stopped-up rinse water as I disliked how soapy it gets but I really can't imagine not rinsing my dishes. I've always done it in running water so I'm fascinated by the different ways people do it.

Is the 'no rinse' method also the way it's done in non-US commercial kitchens? Apparently many of us Americans have a love affair with rinsing .

That's been my experience with the few commercial kitchens I've worked in in Denmark and New Zealand. But granted, my experience is very limited in both countries. I've only worked in 2 in Denmark and 1 in NZ.